Philadelphia Folk Festival is back as an in-person event this weekend for the first time since 2019

The Old Pool Farm in Upper Salford Township will be back in action this weekend as a music venue for the first time in three years.

The Philadelphia Folk Festival, which was founded in 1962 and bills itself as the oldest continuously run outdoor music fest in North America, returns to its Montgomery County stomping grounds, starting Thursday night.

This year’s headliners include the Chris Thile-led virtuoso acoustic quintet Punch Brothers, Nashville soul and R&B duo The War and Treaty, rap and folk bandleader Michael Franti, and 1990s hip-hop hitmakers Arrested Development. Those acts are part of an ongoing effort in recent years to attract a younger audience to replenish a fan base that has aged along with the festival over its six decade run.

In 2020, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the in-person Folk Festival was canceled. But the fest carried on as a digital-only event with livestream performances. It also opened its archives with video clips from its illustrious past when acts like Mississippi John Hurt, Bonnie Raitt, and Fairport Convention were regulars and the Folk Fest was held in similarly high regard with iconic gatherings like the Newport Folk Festival.

Last year, the members of the Folk Fest’s loyal community were expecting to be able to get back together when it was initially announced that the festival would return as a scaled down edition for a limited audience at an alternative site in Upper Salford. That would have been the Fest’s 60th year, but it was billed as “the 59½ Pocket Sized Philadelphia Folk Festival.”

But though many Philly area outdoor festivals like Made In America and XPoNential Music Festival carried on last year, the Folk Fest called off their in-person plans and again went digital. There was speculation that the move might have been due to poor ticket sales, but organizers cited health concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 delta variant.

The Folk Festival’s recent financial troubles were detailed in an in-depth Philadelphia Magazine story in June by former Daily News music critic and longtime attendee Jonathan Takiff, who reported that the Fest’s nonprofit parent, the Philadelphia Folksong Society, reported a loss of $386,595 for the fiscal year of 2019, the most recent that has been reported.

However, last year — shortly after the 2021 in-person fest was canceled — the PFS received a grant of $869,254 from the Shuttered Venues Operator Grant program that offered relief to music and arts venues nationwide that were forced out of business in the early pre-vaccine days of the pandemic.

This year, the Folk Fest is back with full programming, and crowds are expected to be sizable, with longtime attendees reuniting for the first time in three years.

Folksong Society executive director Justin Nordell on Thursday said that advance ticket sales have been higher this year than at any time since 2015. “We are excited to have incredible crowds again,” he said. “This is the 60th anniversary and normally we say ‘Happy Fest,’ this year we are saying ‘Welcome Home.’”

In response to speculation in the Philly Mag article that this could be the final Philadelphia Folk Festival, Nordell said: “We are very happy to say that we are already planning out artists for the 61st and 62nd Philadelphia Folk Festival. So this is not the last; we are hoping to be around for 60 more years”

There will be music on seven stages, kicking off Thursday with its traditional campers only concert, this year headlined by Scottish instrumental trio Talisk.

Then it gets busy for the next three days, with Christine Lavin serving as host in the position long held by legendary folk DJ Gene Shay, who died in 2020.

Friday headliners and notables include Punch Brothers and Watchhouse teaming with Sarah Jarosz as an ensemble calling itself American Acoustic, plus Dustbowl Revival and Raye Zaragoza. Also, if you arrive early: Jefferson Berry and the Urban Acoustic Coalition plays the Tank Stage at 11 a.m. and Sug Daniels is on the same stage at 12:20 p.m., and Brittney Ann Tranbaugh plays the Lobby Stage at 4 p.m.

Saturday is the fest’s most funky, hip-hop leaning day with Michael Franti & Spearhead and Arrested Development, plus old school folkie Tom Rush, Happy Traum, and Jim Kweskin. There’s a Philly Songwriters In The Round guitar pull on the Culture Stage, with Aaron Nathans, Avi Wisnia, Rachel Eve, and Sarah Murdoch.

Sunday finishes strongly with The War and Treaty, a pair of superb singer-songwriters in Hiss Golden Messenger and Aoife O’Donovan, and the great soul woman Bettye LaVette. Davina & the Vagabonds play the Camp Stage at 12:30 p.m. and Los Texmaniacs are at the Lobby Stage at 4 p.m.

A full schedule is at folkfest.org/lineup/schedule.

This year, there is still a streaming option: $65 streaming tickets give access to the festival archives, as well as the live fest, through Aug. 31. Various in-person ticket options range from $8 (per day, for kids 5 to 11) to $254, 10 a.m., 8/18-8/22, 1323 Salford Station Rd. Harleysville, PA, folkfest.org.